And it’s all gone quiet over there 16 July, 2009

With the first pre-season friendly just three days away and all the breaking news about Man City’s interest in Emmanuel Adebayor it seems like the summer quiet period is officially over. Things are about to hot up, especially if Ade’s transfer does go through as it’ll leave us £25m in pocket with a striker and/or central midfielder to buy. It’s been a long and enduring summer but it looks as if those no-news days are over.

I opened with this paragraph yesterday and once again I have no idea what I’m talking about. After the sudden burst of Adebayor to City stories it’s all gone a bit quiet again. I don’t think anyone really knows what’s going on; the papers have already announced a passed medical and approved work permit so there’s nothing really more to say until it’s a done deal.

They’re now saying that Ade wants a bit of extra time to think about his move. Apparently he’s worried what his fans in Africa will think about him moving from one of the continent’s favourite clubs to Man City, a team which everyone knows is all about money. I’m sure the rumoured £150,000+ a week will help him make a decision.

There’s also this story from the Daily Mail who have outdone themselves again. They say his agent has contacted United after City refused to pay his wage demands. This summer the Daily Mail has come up with some incredible stories, this isn’t the worst but it’s another to add to the scrap book. This just after Alex Ferguson said there will be no more signings this summer, the Daily Mail think they can get away with a lazy link with a £20m+ striker wanting £170,000 a week. Madness.

The reality is this, Man City are away in South Africa to play Orlando Pirates and Kaiser Chiefs. Once they’re back from that maybe the move can get rolling again. Until then we’re just going to have to wait, speculate and maybe speculate some more.

There is a bit of news though, Felipe Melo has completed his move to Juve. I think a lot of us were quite excited about the possibility of signing him but he did make it clear from the start he wanted to go to Juventus. We were just used to hurry them into an offer and I feel a bit silly now. We have to move on to our next target and I’m sure Wenger is busy seeing where any possible money from Adebayor can go.

Everyone’s saying Marouane Chamakh, even Wenger admitted he is a target. I’d expect that deal to happen fairly quickly after an Adebayor transfer. We should have a fair amount of money left over though and I’d hope Arsene is seeing what central midfielder we can get with that. We could have up to £18m left to spend on a defensive midfielder and that kind of money can get you a pretty decent player.

We have been linked with someone today – a 15-year-old Serbian forward Veljko Batrovic. AC Milan and Real Madrid are supposed to be after him too but Sky Sports understands he’s flying over to London next week for a trial with us. Sky Sports ‘understand’ a lot don’t they?

Ok well that’s it for today. Tomorrow I’ll be able to write the first match preview of 09/10! Unless of course there’s a load of developments with this Adebayor story in which case you’d probably rather hear about that. Either way, speak to you tomorrow.